The invention relates generally to fitness equipment, and more specifically to fitness equipment that mechanically links to one or more plates in a weight plate stack after a user selects the desired amount of weight to be lifted by the user.
There are various types of activities that people can engage in to enhance physical fitness. Many types of fitness devices have been invented to aid people in their quest for physical fitness, and these range from the simple barbell to the mechanically complex cable, pulley and weight stack machines. In the latter, a series of stacked weights aligned with a rod extending vertically therethrough are lifted by the user through one or more cables extending through pulleys attached at one end to the rod and at the opposite end to a handle. The user selects the position of the handle in order to correctly match the lifting routine and body size, and the user selects the amount of weight appropriate to his or her fitness level in the routine.
Conventional means for selecting the amount of weight include a T-shaped pin that inserts between two of the cast iron plates in the stack and into an aligned aperture in the rod. Because the pin is placed beneath one of the plates and into the rod, when the rod is raised by pulling on the cable, the weight plates above the pin are lifted with the rod. To remove the pin from the stack, one typically lowers the weights and then presses a button at the intersection of the “legs” of the “T”. This allows the pin to be withdrawn from the aperture in the rod, for example by reducing the diameter of the pin by moving radially inwardly a small ball that otherwise protrudes from the shaft of the pin.
While those with the ability to grasp the handle and press the button on such T-shaped pins take for granted their ability to carry out the procedure needed to withdraw such a pin, a significant portion of the population is not capable of carrying out this procedure. Fitness machines listed in the Invention Disclosure Statement have been invented to allow users who are not able to carry out this procedure to avoid such machines. However, such prior art machines suffer from various weaknesses that hinder their use. Therefore, the need exists for a fitness machine with a weight stack that permits quick and accurate change of weight and display of the selected weight.